But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise Opens April 29 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Travels to the Pera Museum in Istanbul in 2017

NEW YORK, April 28, 2016 /PRNewswire / — From April 29 to October 5, 2016, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presents But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, the third exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. Organized by Sara Raza, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Middle East and North Africa, the exhibition features a wide range of artistic voices and critical concerns from a rapidly evolving region through installation, photography, sculpture, video, and work on paper. Interwoven with questions and ideas about the region’s colonial histories, the exhibition investigates such themes as architecture and geometry, modernism and migration, and the process of unearthing hidden ideas.

As with the two previous exhibitions in the MAP initiative, which focused on contemporary art practice from South and Southeast Asia and Latin America, But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise features artworks that have been recently acquired for the Guggenheim’s collection. Under the auspices of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund the collection has grown by over 125 works from more than 85 artists. On-site and digital programs have served more than 14,000 adults, families, educators, and students worldwide. Following its presentation at the Guggenheim, the exhibition will travel to the Pera Museum in Istanbul in 2017.

Exhibition OverviewBut a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise features 18 works—many of them large-scale, mixed media installations—by 17 artists. The exhibition, installed on two levels of the museum’s Tower Galleries, draws its title from the artwork But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise (2010) by Rokni Haerizadeh, which in turn is quoted from German philosopher Walter Benjamin in a noted essay from 1940.

Ala Younis (b. 1974, Kuwait; lives and works in Amman, Jordan and London)

Additional acquisitions for the Guggenheim UBS MAP collection include work by artists Lida Abdul (b. 1973, Kabul; lives and works in Los Angeles and Kabul), Emily Jacir (b. 1972, Bethlehem, lives and works in Rome, Italy and Ramallah, Palestine) and Gülsün Karamustafa (b. 1946, Ankara, Turkey; lives and works in Istanbul).

About Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art InitiativeThe Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative is a distinctive program that creates direct access to contemporary art and education on a global scale. Through in-depth collaboration with artists, curators and cultural organizations from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa, MAP has expanded the Guggenheim’s collection with more than 125 new works, and has built physical and digital experiences that bring art and ideas to life.

The first MAP exhibition, No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, was organized by June Yap and presented at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center and NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore following its New York debut in 2013. The second exhibition, Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today (Bajo un mismo sol: Arte de América Latina hoy), is organized by Pablo León de la Barra and was on view at Museo Jumex in Mexico City through February 7, 2016, after being presented in New York; it will be presented at the South London Gallery from June 10 through September 4, 2016.

Information about the artists, curators, and exhibitions is available on guggenheim.org/MAP.